Thursday, 18 December 2014

Christmas is a time of good cheer and consumer excess for many but in this rich country it is also a time when the growing levels of poverty become most visible. Nowhere is that more so this year than with the growing numbers of people going to foodbanks.

The Trussell Trust, which runs the nationwide network of foodbanks, reports 913,000 going to foodbanks over the past year – an increase of 129,000.The Trust point out that there have been 500,000 people coming to foodbanks in the six month period between April and September this year, 38% more than for the comparable period last year.

Currently, 45% of food bank referrals are due to benefit delays and changes, including sanctions and 22% of the 500,000 that came cite low income as the main trigger for the crisis.So foodbanks are flourishing. The question though must be what should their role be moving forward? An excellent report funded by the Church of England and compiled by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger and Food Poverty has credited the foodbanks for staging “a social Dunkirk.”The report, Feeding Britain, makes three main recommendations, first that there are changes to the benefits system to ensure people are not thrown into poverty. Second, that low pay must be addressed, which means the living wage being implemented across the country (£7.85 an hour and £9.15 in London), thereby putting more money into people’s pockets.The third suggestion is the creation of a new generation of “super” food banks, which combine food aid with welfare advice and advocacy. This network of foodbanks would bring together the existing players with supermarkets and the state.

It is this third recommendation that some see as a step toward institutionalising foodbanks as a permanent fixture, rather than seeing them as a temporary measure to deal with a hunger crisis. The story of foodbanks in Canada provides a salutary lesson. Foodbanks were introduced in Canada in the early 1980s in what was perceived as a tough economic time.There are now 700 foodbanks in Canada, providing help to 800,000 people. The number has increased by nearly 100,000 over the past six years – as the country has come out of economic recession. The foodbanks have taken on a role previously undertaken by the welfare system.Writing in the Guardian, Graham Riches, emeritus professor and former director of the School of Social Work, University of British Columbia, tells how foodbanks have become a second tier of the benefits system in Canada. “The sad fact is that in Canada, with its 30-year track record of increasingly corporatised food charity, recent national data shows that one in eight householdsor 3.9 million individuals (11.6% of the population) are still experiencing food insecurity,” said Riches, who criticises the Feeding Britain report for only addressing the supply side of the question and thereby recommending “a vanguard role for the charitable food industry and food waste in the battle against structurally caused food poverty.” He argues that this can only lead to “the long-term institutionalisation of food banking and diminish political appetite for progressive reform." Riches argues that in Canada public perception of food charity is that it should take care of domestic hunger. “Governments can look the other way,” said Riches, who suggests that a right to food should be entrenched in domestic law backed by international statute, then the obligation to deal with hunger would be put fully back under the responsibilities of the state.

There has to be a concern than in Britain that the proliferation of foodbanks is not at the behest of the demise of the welfare state. It is right that Churches and charities should continue to meet the need of those unable to feed themselves. However, they must persistently challenge as to why, in such a rich country, that boasts more than 100 billionaires, a million people need to visit food banks.

The challenge for the Church in particular is very clear, it must provide a justice based response to the poverty crisis, not just charity. This means not just stepping up to provide a network of bigger and better foodbanks but also to ask what needs to be done to end the poverty that makes this service required in the first place. Measures like the living wage and addressing benefits provision issues are no doubt part of the solution but there also needs to be a fairer distribution of wealth. There need to be clear steps taken to close the gap between the richest and poorest in society, so that increasing numbers at the poor end are not forced toward charity based band aids like foodbanks. These charitable safety nets cannot replace the welfare state which has been underpinned by a basic right that people do not go hungry in our society.

Friday, 12 December 2014

Veteran Greenham Common peace campaigner Sarah Hipperson has completed the final act in a peace drama that has dominated the last 30 years of her life.The final act saw the Greenham Common Women’s Commemorative Peace Garden, created by the women peace activists, handed over last month to the people of Newbury.

Sarah, 87, recalled that the land had effectively been occupied by the military for many years, before the women peace protesters arrived in the 1980s. It was as a result of legal proceedings brought by the women that it was finally established that the military had no right being on the land, as it belonged to the people. It was the final victory for the women who had so bravely fought against the stationing in the 1980s by the US government of nuclear missiles on the Greenham Common site.

Sarah had lived a relatively straightforward life up until the momentous day in 1983 when she decided to go down and join the women’s peace camp in Greenham.

A native of Glasgow, she became a nurse and mid-wife in her late teens, delivering babies in the Govern area. She then decided to emigrate to Canada, where she lived for 16 years, nursing, getting married and having five children. She returned to England in the 1970s, settling in the east London suburb of Wanstead.

Life at this time involved being a member of the local justice and peace group at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, as well as sitting on the bench as a Justice of the Peace.

During the early 1980s Sarah became increasingly frustrated with trying to raise awareness of nuclear weapons in Wanstead.

She showed Helen Caldacott’s film “Critical Mass” about the dangers of nuclear weapons. “There would be a numbing effect but it went no further than that,” said Sarah, who became a member of CND in the 1970s and worked with Catholic Peace Action.

Moving to Greenham Common in 1983, proved a liberating experience. The catalogue of events that followed over the next couple of decades, with a series of peaceful actions, court cases and imprisonments, all formed part of the work.

“The work is to achieve complete nuclear disarmament,” said Sarah. “We have all been involved in the crime that presents itself as nuclear deterrent. The bottom line is that we will use weapons that are 80 per cent more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, in the case of Trident, as part of the defence policy of this country. As a Christian I have never been able to live with that.”

For Sarah, the whole concept of nuclear weapons runs contrary to the word of God. “Nuclear weapons will finish off the planet through which God’s creation finds a way to live out the life given to it,” she said. Sarah found Greenham Common a highly spiritual place, where she was able to channel her anger by getting involved.

She recalled a 10 week period in 1984, when a group of women were on the common, with virtually nothing but what they stood up in. “Then the police were called to go and police the miners strike,” she recalled. “The tents could then come back onto the land.”

Over the years, Sarah was repeatedly arrested for peaceful direct actions, like blocking vehicles at Greenham Common and cutting fences. She served 22 sentences, the longest being 28 days in Holloway for criminal damage. “I never paid a fine,” said Sarah proudly.

Appearing in court gave the opportunity to openly question the legality of nuclear weapons. There have been successes, such as when the Law Lords declared that the bye-laws that the Ministry Defence had been using to remove women from Greenham Common were invalid. “We had every right to be there, the military had no right to be on the common,” said Sarah. The women also saw the fence around the common declared illegal.

When the missiles were removed from Greenham Common in the early 1990s, Sarah continued her protest against Trident. This involved actions at nearby Aldermaston.

The Greenham Common airbase is now long gone but Sarah and some of the women established a garden there in 2002 to mark the action. “It was an undeveloped piece of land, when we put tents on it, now it has sculptures, stones and special plants,” said Sarah.

Part of the garden has been dedicated to Helen Thomas, who was knocked down by a military vehicle and killed, aged only 22, during the protest.

The garden has been a continuation of Sarah’s life’s work over the past 12 years. She has raised £78,000 for the garden, most of it coming from small donations made by hundreds of people.

Sarah sees the handing over of the peace garden as her final act, completing the Greenham cycle. The land being handed back to the people. She recalled that at times during the protest, the local people were far from friendly.

“On one occasion, we were getting some shopping in Tescos and at the check out the assistant would not ring the sale through. She said there is disease at the camp,” said Sarah, who recalled how another of the quick thinking women then told the women to ‘go round the shop and touch everything – especially the meat.” The assistant then took the women’s money and they went on their way.

On another occasion, Sarah got on a bus, after a court appearance, to go back to the Greenham Common site. The bus driver refused to move until she got off the bus. A stand off ensued before he finally drove off. She recalled getting off short of the camp, because she knew the driver out of spite would not stop at the camp but go straight on and dump her in the country.

These type of happenings underline how strong the feelings went on both sides, so the creation of the garden and now its return to the people of Newbury marks the final act of reconciliation of all sides.

Recently, Sarah was reunited with some comrades from her peace actions at the funeral of Jesuit Father Gerry Hughes. He was a friend for many years. At the funeral Sarah was given a copy of his final book, published just a couple of weeks before he died. Father Hughes had been intending to give the book to Sarah in person but events intervened, so that was never possible.

Sarah’s battle maybe over but the struggle against nuclear weapons goes on. There are the ongoing protests against Trident at Faslane and other parts of the country. Sarah believes that the legality of these destructive weapons need to be tested in the international courts.

In a world that seems to get more violent with each passing decade, the struggle for peace goes on. Sarah Hipperson and the women of Greenham played their part in moving that struggle a little further forward.

*In tribute to Sarah, the woman who really would not be moved - Universe - 12/12/2014

Thursday, 11 December 2014

One of the questions that comes from the
excellent ITV drama “the Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries” is just how many
similar innocent individuals are there languishing in the prison system? Jeffries
is put through a series of intimidatory interviews by police, without the evidence
to back up any of the claims.

He has a competent lawyer, who helps
ensure his release. But what of less resilient individuals, without such
competent legal representation (more likely given the legal aid cuts) – throw
in a media frenzy resembling some sort of Middle Ages style witch hunt - and
where is justice?

* The Lost honour of Christopher Jeffries - ITV- 9pm on 10 &11 December 2014

Wednesday, 3 December 2014

When Lord Patten takes up the chair of a Vatican committee to advise the Pope on media strategy, he may well be looking back home for models of excellence. One, some would argue, is Catholic Voices.
Set up ahead of the papal visit of Benedict XVI to the UK in 2010, Catholic Voices is the brainchild of Austen Ivereigh, former public affairs director to Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, and Jack Valero, press officer for the Catholic group Opus Dei. The seeds for Catholic Voices (CV) were sown in 2006, when Valero and Ivereigh put together the Da Vinci Code Response Group to respond to questions about the church arising from Dan Brown’s bestselling novel.
Backed by the Catholic Union and enjoying charitable status, CV set out to train up 24 lay Catholics and one priest to represent the Church in the public square. In the event, the Pope’s visit passed off without a media hitch, perhaps because no scandal emerged on such issues as the church and child abuse.
The trip could thus be trumpeted as a great success. Never slow to celebrate achievement, CV says: “Our
appearances on over 100 programmes at that time made a big impression on bishops and broadcasters alike and we were encouraged to continue.”
Since then, CV has grown, training up more lay people to speak on behalf of the church. The CV academy holds regular meetings, which can be briefings, talks and debates. Ivereigh has written a book - "How to defend the faith without raising your voice" - about the development of the CV model. The has been replicated around the world, with 12 CV groups now operating in Europe, the Americas and Australia.
However, Lord Patten may well have questions for the group over its process of due diligence and some of its political leanings, for CV seems to divide Catholics. “The media’s response to Catholic Voices is an archetype of religious illiteracy: hook line and sinker they have swallowed the hard right line proffered by this well-funded fringe group whose primary focus is to defend positions and behaviours that most UK Catholics have rejected…They would be better called ‘neo-conservative Catholic voices,” said Francis Davis, columnist for the Catholic Times.
This is a group that seems at times to align itself with parties such as Ukip. Leading the way in this respect has been Ivereigh himself, who tweeted last year: "For first & probably last time, I have voted @UKIP in protest at parties' cynical collusion in overthrow by
state of conjugal marriage."
CV ran a campaign for “conjugal marriage” (and thus against gay marriage), with the writer Caroline Farrow, a columnist in the bestselling Catholic weekly the Universe, attracting criticism from more liberal figures after she questioned a call from the gay action group Stonewall to eradicate homophobia from schools, churches and homes: “It's difficult to know what that means in practice and certainly impinges upon Catholic principles of the parents as primary educators. How may homophobia, which is so frequently applied to Catholic teaching, be eradicated from schools, churches and homes and who will enforce it?" Farrow has become a regular in the media, with her weekly column and appearances on programmes such as BBC’s Question Time, where she defended conjugal marriage.
Those with doubts about CV ask how it vets its speakers, particularly after one tweeted the hope that the IRA might bomb an abortion clinic in Belfast and retweeted another tweet calling for “all fags to be exterminated”.
Valero has explained the selection process: “We ask all applicants to fill in a questionnaire and submit it with their details. From these questionnaires we invite some to interview. The interviews are carried out by three or four people who ask about different areas: personality, articulacy, persuasiveness, awareness of
the news, their knowledge and experience of the church, and so on.
“We look at blogs and Twitter feeds for a general view, although it is not always possible to read everything they have written. From among those interviewed we choose the most appropriate, taking account also of trying to put together a balanced team in terms of range of ages, men and women, occupations, etc. During the actual training course we also have further tests for the trainees so that at the end we can decide whether to take them on. Nobody who does the training is automatically a Catholic Voice.”
Yet the hierarchy appears to have lined up behind the organisation. Cardinal George Pell, who will oversee Lord Patten in his new Vatican role, said: “Catholic Voices are really onto something that will grow and spread.”
Cardinal Vincent Nichols said: “CV is marked by a love of the church and a deeply rooted spirit…I think this effort to bring faith and reason together in the public forum is crucial for us.”
Interestingly though, the institutional church likes to keep its distance from CV, leaving it effectively in the deniability zone. CV are said not to speak for the church but to have “its blessing”. This enables the church to approve when CV proclaims in favour of -
say - conjugal marriage, but back away when there are more contentious outbursts.
This “deniability zone” may be narrowing, with Eileen Cole, the media co-ordinator at CV also working for the Catholic Communications Network, the official press operation of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales (BCEW). The BCEW is also a funder of CV.
Alexander des Forges, director of news at the BCEW and press secretary to Cardinal Nichols, tried to explain the relationship between the BCEW and CV. "While Catholic Voices is independent, it has the support and the blessing of the bishops. Experts from the Bishops’ Conference and bishops themselves have given briefings to Catholic Voices to explain the Catholic Church’s position across many areas of media interest; from schools to assisted suicide," said des Forges. "Catholic Voices have engaged with the media in an accessible way, communicating in ways that are normal and human. They are at the forefront of the move to encourage all Catholics to engage with the media and speak up about their faith."
Coming from the BBC, made up of competing media interests, Lord Patten will surely appreciate the dangers of a body like CV. The media will not always be prepared to play the deniability game, allowing the institutional church and its not so official spokespeople to waltz in and out of each others
company. The big test would be another child abuse scandal. If something happens that suggests the Catholic church has failed to meet its promise to put its house in order, then the media will want to know exactly who is speaking and on whose behalf.

Friday, 28 November 2014

The accusation has been made that the leadership of the Catholic Church in England and Wales is more at home in the boardroom than on the shop floor. The accusers question that while Cardinal Vincent Nichols contributes to the CBI “great business debate”, citing his own “Blueprint for Business” initative – begun in 2012 – what is the equivalent on the workers side. There is certainly no one from the Bishops Conference of England and Wales addressing the Trade Union Congress, like the late Bishop John Jukes did for so many years.

It is important to remember that it is the workers who produce the profits with their labour, something repeatedly pointed out in Catholic Social Teaching since the ground breaking Papal encyclical Rerum Novarum – “Of New Things” (1891). The same encyclical made clear the disparity in power indices between worker and employer, requiring the existence of trade unions to balance up the situation. This inequality in the modern age was further developed by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Laborem Laborem Excercens – “On Human Work” (1981).

Today, Cardinal Nichols has identified some of the appalling working conditions that exist in this country.“We know that working conditions exist today, in this city, which are not far from effective slavery, as well as the presence of extensive de facto slavery too. It is right to struggle against these outrageous conditions, just as it is right to seek to work with those who share a desire to develop a healthy ecology of enterprise in our society today,” said the Cardinal, delivering his homily at the mass to mark the 125th anniversary of the Great London Docks strike.

He has also condemned the zero hours culture that has grown as more and more people are forced into insecure low paid work. “Zero hours contracts offer no reliable hours and therefore no guaranteed income. The practical virtues of planning expenditure, purchasing intelligently and avoiding debt really are difficult in a situation like that,” said Cardinal Nichols.

The Church has also majored on the living wage campaign, playing a leading role along with community organisers like Citizens UK and the trade unions in getting this standard adopted. Many Church organisations have adopted living wage criteria themselves.

The role of the Church in the living wage campaign certainly offers a beacon of good practice for how its relationship with business and labour could be developed. I recall sitting in an old church hall in the East End of London in 2005, with Sir John Bond, then the chair of HSBC, together with the then Bishop of Brentwood Thomas McMahon, representatives from community organisers London Citizens and a number of priests.

The debate went to and fro. HSBC were being asked to sign up to the living wage pledge, whereby they would ensure than no worker was paid less than the living wage for their labour. Sir John was not willing at the time to concede, quoting the amount that the bank gave to charity. However, the seed had been sown. A mixture of meetings and actions in HSBC branches by London Citizens led to the bank signing up as a living wage employer. This type of process was taken with a whole raft of employers, all of whom now form the basis of the growing living wage movement.

The Church in this context was playing a direct role campaigning for social justice with civil society organisations – including trade unions – as well as providing witness by adopting the living wage in churches, schools and other institutions.

The living wage campaign had arisen from mainly Catholic members of London Citizens, who fed back that their low wages were destroying family life. The low wages of the likes of security guards and cleaners meant they were having to do more than one job to keep their families above the poverty line. This was not good for family life or the common good. The living wage campaign resulted, bringing beneficial results for workers and employers in the longer term.

It would be good to see this kind of methodology being adopted in initiatives like the Blueprint for Business. The Blueprint seeks to get businesses to sign up to the five principles of honesty, good citizenship, having a purpose that delivers long term sustainable performance, being a responsible employer and guardianship for future generations. They are good aspirations but would most businesses not sign up to these?

Surely more measurable indicators would provide a greater test. So businesses could be required to commit to collective bargaining, trade union recognition, the living wage, closing wage gap between employers and workers, outlawing zero hours contracts and shorter working weeks. The companies should be required to pay their tax in this country. These criteria have resonance with the concept of the common good as defined in Catholic Social Teaching.

Acting CEO of Blueprint Charles Wookey has offered assurances that some exacting standards are being developed to ensure that participating companies are behaving ethically but there is some way to go.

However, the Church’s role in relation to the workplace goes way beyond Blueprint.We should hear more from the Church about zero hours contracts culture, the growth of bogus self-employment, the growing number of part time workers (most of whom want full time work) and the growth in the number of people in work receiving benefits. None of these recent developments in the workplace are conducive to the common good and family life.

Perhaps it is time that the world of work committee or some equivalent within the Caritas Social Action Network were set up. This would provide a source of expertise for the bishops to draw upon and feel confident when they commented on the world of work.

There should also be moves made to develop a similar dialogue with trade union leaders to that which already exists with business leaders (via Blueprint and the CBI). It is one of the great ironies that so many of the leaders of the trade union movement in the UK received their formation as Catholics. These include TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady, GS of PCS Mark Serwotka and GS of the Communication Workers Union Billy Hayes. The unions would welcome an approach from the Church if it were made in good faith, with an intent to treat the workers on an equal footing with employers.

So there is much to be done by the Church in the world of work. It is a critical area, in which most people spent huge amounts of their time. Work defines so many elements of life that it is simply not good enough for Church to ignore the terrain altogether or worse still just talk to one side.

*Article draws on presentation made at the Tablet Table of 20th November - debate with Charles Wookey, CEO of Blueprint and others

Why is it that when the intelligence services ask for more anti-terrorism powers the politicians obey but when the same agencies warn that Britain’s involvement in foreign wars increases the terror threat at home they get completely ignored.

Wednesday, 26 November 2014

This
excellent production of Stephen MacDonald’s “Not about Heroes” tracks the
relationship between poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. The two men
first met at Craiglockhart hospital in Scotland in 1917.

Sassoon
had been sent to the hospital to silence his criticisms of the war. A decorated
officer he became increasingly critical of the war, which he believed was being
deliberately prolonged.

Owen
is just pleased to be able to meet his writing hero face to face. The story
unfolds, as it becomes clear that the student will soon outstrip his master
when it comes to the art of poetry.

Ben
Ashton gets the body language of Owen spot on, the nervousness in the presence
of the master, then a growing confidence as the two men develop a mutual
understanding and affection.

James
Howard plays the more confident Sassoon with an air of Noel Coward about him.
He goes through the full ambit of emotions from joy at the success of his
friend to feelings of guilt as to whether he should have done more to prevent
Owen returning to the front where he is killed a week before the Armistice.

Not
about Heroes is a fascinating play that centres around the relationship between
the two men born out of poetry and the war. Both have a growing revulsion at
the pointless loss of life and communicate through their poetry.

Some
verse forms part of the dialogue, most notably Owen’s Anthem for Youth, but not
so much that the whole thing just becomes about the poetry. The play marks a
flowering of creative youth being celebrated against the dark backdrop of bloody
war.

Both
Sassoon and Owen returned to the front from Craiglockhart, the former being
shot in the head but surviving. Owen was not so fortunate but the body of poetry
he left at the age of just 24 amounts to more than most achieve in several
lifetimes. The messages of that poetry are as relevant to our world today as
they were to the fields of France 100 years ago.

Friday, 14 November 2014

The excellent
play, State Red, takes an original approach to deaths in police custody. The
ingenius plot involving just four actors, revolves around the shooting of a
black man by a black man, only the one doing the shooting is a police officer.
Atiha Sen Gupta’s story starts when the shooter, Luke, returns home after a
year away. During that time, he has been to see the family of the man he
killed. He returns to a scene where his parents and best friend, and fellow
police officer, Mathew, are returning from a police event – his father is going
to be confirmed as commissioner the next day. The different layers of the play
then address a myriad of issues, including police canteen culture, the hurt and
suffering of the family of the dead man and perhaps uniquely the damage done to
the police officer who did the shooting.

The play
gets right below the surface of an ongoing issue in our society, which shows no
sign of resolution, with more than 1,000 people dying in police custody since
1990. Families continue to lose loved ones and police officers continue to fail
to be brought to account – the result more deaths. Even when inquest juries
bring in unlawful killing verdicts nothing seems to happen. State Red addresses
the issue in a truly unique way, bringing together so many elements of the
problem in dramatic form. The only qualification is that I have never met a
policeman like the character Luke but then maybe that is the point.

There are
excellent performances from Samuel Anderson (of Dr Who fame), Maxine Finch,
Geoff Leesley and Toby Wharton. Atiha Sen Gupta has certainly produced a great
follow up to her debut play, What Fatima Did, which was performed at the
Hampstead Theatre in 2009. State Red has been three years in gestation, no
doubt drawing on the shooting by police of Mark Duggan in London in 2011 and
subsequent events. This is a play well worth seeing, if you enjoy contemporary
cutting edge drama dealing with real issues of social justice in today’s world.

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

There is reportedly a drama being made for screening next year depicting Britain under a UKIP government. This does seem a bit of a waste of time, given that as far as I can see we already are living under such a regime. The Tory Coalition follows UKIP policy to the letter with its anti-immigrant, anti-EU and anti-wind turbines positions. Maybe the drama should develop what life under a Tory/UKIP government will look like in the longer term – skills shortages, low paid insecure work, rising unemployment, riots due to crushing poverty and the lights going out due to mismanagement of energy resources. The new scapegoats replacing immigrants in this brave new world will probably be the elderly

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

One great sadness of remembrance
is recalling how so many millions gave their lives for a better world that has
never come to be. So today, the 85 richest people control as much wealth as the
poorest half of the world’s population. In
this country, there are around 100 billionaires, whilst a million go to
foodbanks. Billions are wasted on weapons systems like Trident, whilst millions
struggle across the globe for the basics of life like water.

In the meantime, people vote for
parties committed to the sort of intolerant policies on Europe and immigration
that caused so many to go to fight in the world wars. The sad conclusion is
that they may have given their tomorrows for our todays but we squander and
insult that legacy by the way we behave today.* published - Independent - 13/11/2014Ilford Recorder and Wanstead and Woodford Guardian - 13/11/2014

Sunday, 9 November 2014

The real danger of the Blueprint for Better Business process is that the Church could be being used as a fig leaf by corporations which in reality carry on with business as usual.

The five principles: be honest, be a good citizen, have a purpose, be responsive and be a guardian are not exactly challenging concepts – most businesses would sign up, if for no other reason than corporate profile.

Many would have more belief if the businesses in question signed up to some measurable changes such as commitment to collective bargaining and trade union recognition, a living wage, closing the pay gap between directors and workers, the outlawing of zero hour contracts and working toward shorter working weeks. The companies could also pay their taxes in this country.

The total lack of any representation in the blueprint process from the workers who actually produce the profits is a very basic flaw. One incidentally that is easily detectable, given a cursory reading of Catholic Social Thought on the relations between workers and employers. The occasional trade unionist has been invited along to make up the numbers on the odd panel but there has never been a proper platform provided for those who represent millions in this country.

If the business leaders really do find British trade union leaders so repellent, then maybe a German trade union leader could be invited. In Germany, the trade unions play a key role in partnership with business, working together for the common good. Maybe a German business leader as well to confirm and expand on that perspective.

The worry with the Blueprint process is that it comes over as a one sided exercise that the Church has been naively drawn into by business. If it is to continue and have meaning the process must be widened beyond a small clique of business leaders whose primary aim is no doubt self-interest.

“The practical virtues of planning expenditure, purchasing intelligently and avoiding debt really are difficult in a situation like that,” said Cardinal Nichols. “Others remain on the minimum wage, with no opportunity for wage progression in their working environment. And despite good news on employment figures, there is still a gap for many between achievable incomes and general basic living costs.”

Previously Cardinal Nichols had expressed his support for a living wage, with Church employers now seeking to ensure that such levels of paid are maintained. Recent research from KPMG found that five million people in Britain (22% of the workforce) were being paid less than the living wage.)

“We know and everyone here acknowledges that most people want to get over the problems in their lives and seek and hold a job – a sustainable livelihood for themselves and their families. They know that work is an expression of their dignity. It provides contact with others; it helps their health and spirit as well as their living expenses. And its reward should be a just wage,” said Cardinal Nichols, who underlined that “work is a person’s capital and should be treated with the same respect and protection as every other form of capital, be it property or wealth.”He then lamented that "a significant number of children are growing up in poverty, despite having at least one parent in work."Secretary of State for Communities Eric Pickles declared that it was "impossible to think about social care without a vibrant Catholic caring network."Pickles though noted the irritation caused in government by the criticism from the Church about the bedroom tax and the growing use of foodbanks.

Monday, 3 November 2014

The news of a rising number of people using the foodbank in Waltham Forest mirrors what is happening across the country.

The question that should be asked is why in a country of more than 100 billionaires are more than a million people going to foodbanks.

The growing use of foodbanks runs hand in hand with an austerity agenda that has seen the pay of the directors of the FTSE 100 companies going up by 21% in the past year (Income Data Services), compared to 2% for the rest of the population.

The last five years has seen a visible shift of more than a million people from secure reasonably paid work into low paid insecure work. It is these developments in the workplace compounded by cuts to benefits that have forced more and more people toward foodbanks.
How can this be situation acceptable in such a rich society?

There is the danger that the foodbank will become institutionalised as they have in Canada, where 20 years ago they began to dismantle the welfare state in a similar way to what has been occurring in this country.

Foodbanks were introduced as a stop gap, yet today they are more prevalent than ever in Canada.
It is good to support foodbanks but we must never lose sight of the question as to why in such a rich countries they need to exist in the first place?

Thursday, 30 October 2014

When Cardinal Vincent Nichols gathers with business leaders for the third Blueprint for Better Business conference tomorrow, the words of Pope Francis this week on the workplace situation should be ringing in their ears. He called for human dignity to be at the centre of society, and with it, solidarity, which he said means to think and act in terms of the community and to fight against the structural causes of poverty, inequality, unemployment, and loss of land, housing, and social and labour rights. “It is to confront the destructive effects of the ‘Empire of Money’." In Britain there is unprecedented insecurity in the workplace, so although the economy is finally on the up again after the recession, the mass of workers earn less in real terms than they did five years ago. A recent report published by Income Data Services found that the pay of the directors of the FTSE 100 had increased by 21 per cent in the last year, while average pay increases averaged only 2 per cent. The much-lauded economic recovery and fall in unemployment has in the main been predicated on forcing more people into low-paid, insecure work. There are now 1.4 million people on “zero-hours” contracts, where the employer isn’t obliged to require a certain number of hours’ work each week, and two in every five of the new jobs created in recent years have been devised as self-employed roles, ie not obliging an employer to pay tax or national insurance or offer sick leave or annual leave. Then there has been the rise in the number of part-time workers, who now account for 8 million out of the 30 million workforce – half of the jobs created between 2010 and 2012. “In-work poverty” has also been on the increase – over half of those defined as being in poverty come from working families. Yet the cardinal is spending the day talking to business leaders. Among them are Sir Mike Rake, the President of the CBI, and various investment managers pondering the purpose of business. Cardinal Nichols did recently refer to “working conditions existing today, in this city, which are not far from effective slavery, as well as the presence of extensive de facto slavery too.” But he hasn’t mentioned this issue at the previous two Blueprint conferences. Globally, many of the Church’s membership are caught up in this unjust distribution of wages and the common good is not being served by the present inequality. The Church in the UK has supported the concept of a living wage – a wage that will keep people above the poverty line. But much more is needed. Some church recognition and support for trade unions, which have traditionally helped ensure a more equal distribution of wealth, would be welcome. As Pope Francis says, more needs to be done to connect what is going on in the economy with the dignity of the human person. Simply talking to the side that had a disproportionate role in creating the unjust situation in the first place just won’t do. * published Tablet 29/10/2014

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

The incoherence of the Tories on immigration is truly breath taking - if they withdraw the UK from the European Union and the free movement of labour stipulations, the two million plus who have come, worked and contributed here will be forced to go home, The two million plus who have gone from here to work in countries like Spain and Germany will be forced to come home. The net result four million discontented people in countries where they don't want to be, without work. Surprising that we don't hear more from the business community about the ludicrousness of what the Tories/UKIP are proposing, as it will also mean huge losses for them?

Friday, 17 October 2014

The film, Two days, One night, starring Marion Cotillard as Belgium factory worker Sandra will have struck a chord with many workers today.

Sandra is told she will be made redundant unless she can persuade her fellow workers to give up their bonuses. She goes one to one seeking to persuade the different individuals of her cause. In the end she succeeds in converting half the workforce to her cause. This is not enough but the boss is impressed at her fortitude and says she can have a job when one of the other workers is released. She refuses, knowing that it will be one of those who voted to support her who will be let go.

The lesson of the film being the need to show solidarity, organise collectively and work for the common good.

The film is so timely at a moment of unprecedented insecurity in the workplace. The present much lauded economic recovery has in the main been prefaced on forcing more people into low paid insecure work. This is most clearly evidenced with the movement of more than one million workers, since 2010, from the more secure better paid employment of the public sector to the lower paid insecure work of the private sector.

There are now 1.4 million people on zero hour contracts, with two in every five of the new jobs created over recent years being self employed.

Some 4.5 million are classified as self employed. The official figures published by Parliament found that the average annual income from self-employment is less than £10,000 for women - in case anyone should think that self employment is the exclusive status of aspiring entrepreneurs, the number of whom have incidentally declined by 52,000 over the four year period (2010 to 2014).

Then there has been the growth in part time workers, who now account for 8 million out of the 30 million workforce. They account for half of the jobs created between 2010 and 2012. And it is not a life style choice or a matter of work life balance, most of those on part time jobs wanted full time employment but they had to take what was on offer.

At the same time real weekly wages overall have fallen by 8% since 2008, equivalent to a fall in annual earnings of about £2,000 for a typical worker in Britain.

In work poverty has also been on the increase with a growing amount of the benefits budget going to those in rather than out of work. An example is housing benefit, which has gone up by 59% since 2010.

The number of housing benefit claimants in work rose from 650,561 in May 2010 to 1.03 million by the end of last year.

The House of Commons Library calculated the amount spent on in-work housing benefit will rise from £3.4 billion in the 2010-11 financial year to £5.1 billion in 2014-15, making a total of £21.9 billion over the five-year parliament ending at next year’s election

The increase has been due to rents going up whilst wages have fallen or remained static. This situation is a good example of welfare for the rich, with landlords profiting out of the benefits budget whilst the poor struggle, less able to pay, but still getting the blame for their own poverty.

Just over half of the 13 million people in poverty - surviving on less than 60% of the national median (middle) income - were from working families.

This whole situation is very difficult to understand, set as it has been against a background of increasing wealth, evidenced by the presence of more than 100 billionaires (up by 12 over the past year). The wealth created though seems to be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.

What has been surprising amid this worsening situation for life in the workplace has been the lack of any significant comment from Church leaders in the UK. The Catholic Church hierarchy in particular seem totally wedded to business.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols contributed recently to the CBI’s “great business debate” quoting his “blueprint for business” initiative that has called together business leaders for a number of conferences to discuss ethics.

The opposition to trade unions and organised labour amongst the hierarchy is palpable. It was notable that even in delivering his homily for the recent 125th celebration of the Great Dock Strike Cardinal Nichols managed to avoid mentioning trade unions in a contemporary context at all.

So the Cardinal could declare: “We know that working conditions exist today, in this city, which are not far from effective slavery, as well as the presence of extensive de facto slavery too. “

His answer though seems to be to lecture business about ethics seemingly in the belief that one day this will result in business leaders deciding it’s time to be nice to the workers – something not born out by history.

Yet the teachings of the Church are very clear on the world of work. 'If the hours of labour resulting from the unregulated sale of a man's strength and skill shall lead to the destruction of domestic life, to the neglect of children, to turning wives and mothers into living machines, and of fathers and husbands into - what shall I say, creatures of burden? - I will not use any other word - who rise before the sun and come back when it is set, seared and able only to take food and to lie down to rest; the domestic life of man exists no longer, and we dare not go on in this path,' said Cardinal Henry Manning in 1874.

Then came the famous encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) indicating thatthe Church recognised the inequality of the lone worker with just his or her labour to sell versus the overwhelming power of the employer or owner of the means of production. In order to even out this inequality the existence of trade unions was vindicated.

More recently Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Laborem Excercens – “On Human Work” (1981), asserted that the interests of labour must always take precedent over those of capital.

Indeed, Pope John Paul II seemed to suggest the scope and role of unions’ activity needed to expand to meet the demands of the new globalised workplace. “Today unions are called to act in new ways, widening the scope of their activity of solidarity so that protection is afforded not only to the traditional categories of workers, but also to workers with non-standard or limited-time contracts, employees whose jobs are threatened by business mergers that occur with ever increasing frequency, even at international level: to those who do not have a job, to immigrants, seasonal workers and those who, because they have not had professional updating, have been dismissed from the labour market and cannot be readmitted without proper training.” Clearly, a Pope ahead of his time.

It is a great irony that so many of the country’s trade unions are led by individuals who received their early social justice formation in the Catholic Church. General Secretary (GS) of the TUC Frances O’Grady, GS of the Communication Workers Union Billy Hayes and GS of PCS Mark Serwotka are just three of those brought up as Catholics. Yet how much has the Church done to engage with unions and those who represent working people? It seems far too busy engaging with those who strut around the board rooms

The main effort of the Church in the UK regarding the workplace, aside of working with the likes of the CBI, has been to support the concept of a living wage. The idea of a minimum wage that will keep people above the poverty line, this has been set at £8.80 in London and £7.65 in the rest of the country. The Church has supported this idea that was first put forward by community organising groups like London Citizens and the trade unions. But much more is needed from the Church.

It is high time that the Church in this country recognised that the mass of its membership are caught up in this unjust and unequal distribution of wages. A cursory examination of the concept of the common good should result in some reflection on the present situation whereby the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. There needs to be radical change in order that wealth is redistributed on a more just and equitable basis. Trade unions have traditionally been an institution in society that helps ensure a more equal distribution of wealth. So some Church support (recognition) of their role would be welcome. More though needs to be done to connect what is going on in the economy today with the social teachings of the Church and the dignity of the human person, simply talking to the rich and powerful really won’t do.

* Based on a talk to be given at the Salford Justice and Peace Assembly on 18/10/2014
published Independent Catholic News

The film, Two days, One night, starring Marion Cotillard as Belgium factory worker Sandra will have struck a chord with many workers today.

Sandra is told she will be made redundant unless she can persuade her fellow workers to give up their bonuses. She goes one to one seeking to persuade the different individuals of her cause. In the end she succeeds in converting half the workforce to her cause. This is not enough but the boss is impressed at her fortitude and says she can have a job when one of the other workers is released. She refuses, knowing that it will be one of those who voted to support her who will be let go.

The lesson of the film being the need to show solidarity, organise collectively and work for the common good.

The film is so timely at a moment of unprecedented insecurity in the workplace. The present much lauded economic recovery has in the main been prefaced on forcing more people into low paid insecure work. This is most clearly evidenced with the movement of more than one million workers, since 2010, from the more secure better paid employment of the public sector to the lower paid insecure work of the private sector.

There are now 1.4 million people on zero hour contracts, with two in every five of the new jobs created over recent years being self employed.

Some 4.5 million are classified as self employed. The official figures published by Parliament found that the average annual income from self-employment is less than £10,000 for women - in case anyone should think that self employment is the exclusive status of aspiring entrepreneurs, the number of whom have incidentally declined by 52,000 over the four year period (2010 to 2014).

Then there has been the growth in part time workers, who now account for 8 million out of the 30 million workforce. They account for half of the jobs created between 2010 and 2012. And it is not a life style choice or a matter of work life balance, most of those on part time jobs wanted full time employment but they had to take what was on offer.

At the same time real weekly wages overall have fallen by 8% since 2008, equivalent to a fall in annual earnings of about £2,000 for a typical worker in Britain.

In work poverty has also been on the increase with a growing amount of the benefits budget going to those in rather than out of work. An example is housing benefit, which has gone up by 59% since 2010.

The number of housing benefit claimants in work rose from 650,561 in May 2010 to 1.03 million by the end of last year.

The House of Commons Library calculated the amount spent on in-work housing benefit will rise from £3.4 billion in the 2010-11 financial year to £5.1 billion in 2014-15, making a total of £21.9 billion over the five-year parliament ending at next year’s election

The increase has been due to rents going up whilst wages have fallen or remained static. This situation is a good example of welfare for the rich, with landlords profiting out of the benefits budget whilst the poor struggle, less able to pay, but still getting the blame for their own poverty.

Just over half of the 13 million people in poverty - surviving on less than 60% of the national median (middle) income - were from working families.

This whole situation is very difficult to understand, set as it has been against a background of increasing wealth, evidenced by the presence of more than 100 billionaires (up by 12 over the past year). The wealth created though seems to be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.

It has been against this background that the political parties have been laying out their stalls ahead of the general election next May. There seems some consensus on the need to raise the minimum wage, this no doubt born out of the fact that capitalism itself needs people to have the money to spend on goods. The present situation is dysfunctional even in capitalist terms with the few who are getting richer, putting their money – often offshore- so that tax can be avoided. More money is needed in the economy.

The Labour Party’s commitment to raise the minimum wage to £8 was welcome, until it became clear that this was to be over five years. The rise needs to be implemented far quicker. What is really needed is a commitment to a living wage.

Labour has also made noises about zero hours contracts but putting the boss of Morrisons in charge of its review of this type of work has not filled anyone with much hope. The strings that seem likely to be attached to any reform (such as working a year to gain employment rights) thus far planned seem unlikely to make much difference at all to the zero hours culture that pervades increasing numbers of work places.

Ed Balls talk of cutting child benefits and more austerity is not exactly the language to stir supporters onto the streets to campaign for a new Labour government.

There needs to be some proper regulation of work, not simply cutting back all of the time. As the TUC march and rally on 18 October declares Britain needs a pay rise. The economy is on the upturn people are told but it appears to be the bosses trousering all the profits. There needs to be a redistribution of wealth to those who actually do the work.

There also needs to be a change of ethos away from insecure low paid work of the zero hours culture toward the more secure, better paid work that has in the past typified public sector work. The whole things needs urgently rebalancing. The TUC event is a start but the Labour Party has got to pick up the baton and put policies into practice that work for the mass of people and the common good of all. This does not mean toadying up to business and promising to be meaner and more in favour of the rich and powerful than the Tories.* The common good of all must be met - Morning Star - 17/10/2014* Austerity days and nights- Britons need more than a pay rise - 17/10/2014